July 26, 2006

You pay $2 a bottle for pure spring water, and $80 for 18-year-old scotch and cool it down with ... an ordinary cube of ice?

A handful of upstart businesses are hoping to persuade consumers, restaurants, airlines, hotels, hospitals and the military that they could be risking their health (and compromising good taste) by not buying prepackaged, upscale ice...

..."Over time, if we do this right, I believe this will be a commodity." Ross Colbert, a managing director of Beverage Marketing and a board member of Water Bank, says he sees the premium ice customer as someone who needs ice on a private boat or plane and wants an alternative to dragging ice in plastic bags to the sink to break it open.

Indeed, the ice industry, valued at about $2 billion to $2.5 billion at retail in North America, has been slow to ride the wave of bottled water's marketing success...To carve out more than a niche, however, will take resources. Water Bank, with the help of lead underwriter Kingsdale Capital Markets (USA) Inc., is going public with a private placement reverse merger transaction that will close on July 31 and aims to raise $4.5 million in capital.

Since mid-June, the company has distributed 5,000 packs of Icerocks in new refrigerators sold by manufacturer Groupe Candy Hoover in France, and to date has spent some $100,000 on packaging, marketing and Web design. Its trays were included in gift bags given to celebrities at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles in March.

Hmmm. Purified ice cubes. Cool gimmick or cool new cocktailian staple? I have yet to decide...

July 05, 2006

Memories...like the corners of my mind...Misty tie-dyed memories...Like the way I was...

Nothing like visiting the old campus. In this case - Harvard. Yes, this weekend I paid call on Boston, with a side trip (and I mean trip) to Cambridge.

It all started out innocently enough with a yen for cocktails, good music and comfort fare. My Boston posse suggested B-Side Lounge for all three. Besides, the top Beantown dog on the Boston-area Chowhound message board had put it on the top of his list.

Good pick.

With the holiday weekend in full swing, the place wasn't exactly swinging, but the jukebox was well-stocked with rockabilly tunes, the help was mellow and amply tatooed, the cocktail list was riddled with classics, and the food was mighty fine. In fact, I was thoroughly impressed with my entree of Grilled Pork and Pulled Pork Tosada with Black Beans and Pickled Onions (pictured below).

But once we left the lounge, and pulled into a Harvard Square parking lot my flashbacks began.

I won't bare my soul and provide details here, except to say that Herrell's Chocolate Pudding ice cream, cannonball imprints, pennyloafers and a couple of cute male students were involved.

And the flashbacks continued once I returned to terra firma in New York.

I saw the film verson of "The Devil Wears Prada," only to be confronted by memories of a devil-like boss back in the days when I worked in television. If that wasn't enough, yesterday I ran into one of the actors that used to be on that same-said TV show where the devil reigned supreme - and I sold my soul for a time.

Thank goodness I escaped.

But the memories...Forever.

That's the thing about flashbacks. You don't get to pick and choose. The good with the bad.

Wouldn't mind a flashback of that B-Side tostada right now. Strike that. Another flashback of those Harvard boys is a much tastier pick!

July 04, 2006

Guess this is what you get by way of breaking news on a national holiday - First off, today's New York Times reports that the barnyard may soon fuel the great U.S. of A., and make the heartland's farmers wealthy in the process:

In a sense, it is the ultimate renewable source of fuel. Weather anomalies can kill off corn crops, calm the winds, obscure the sun -- but through rain or shine, gusts or stillness, cows and hogs and turkeys spew forth a steady stream of manure...